Best Readily Avaliable Ski

[powdermuncher]

Now if they would only make a 10 inch wide one to get the extra flotation needed that would be awesome.
Sure love the design I had even thought about using a kids snowboard to make my own ski before this came along.

 

[Shanahan7B]

I have never been thrown over the handle bars from the bike sinking with the Curve ski. It floats with the best of them so far for us, from rookies to experienced riders.

 

[mnsnowhawk]

We need to see proof. This thread is useless without pics and video. It's hard to trust someone on a new kit that hasn't proved itself yet. Do you even have experience on any other kits or snow hawks? We heard the same claims about a bolt on adapter for the Simmons skis and have only heard mixed reviews after guys started using them. I would like to see more facts to back up your claims.

 

[yukondood]

testing

mnsnowhack I could not agree with you more. The internet and keyboard opinions suck (in my experience) too many self promoters who are pushing a product for profit and not for performace.

I am new to snow bikes but not new to motor sports. I have moded sleds, stretbikes,truck etc, unfortunately I have fallen for too many keyboard opinions and bought a lot of crap. In my younger years I chalked this up to R&D, now I get pissed becuase it is a waste of my limited ride time buying peoples junk.

I am loving the snobike but finding trouble with a good all around ski for trail and powder. I for one would contibute some $$ to a person or group willing to test ski's in side by side teasting instead of reading about 1 opinion on 1 ski.

The only skis I hav etried so far are the gen I and yamaha mountain ski. I am not playing with my spindle angle as well. The pre drilled holes on the mt horse seem to far forward or too far back, so I am tryign in the middle this weekend and will see. I would love to have a ski that floats better and has better trail manners.

 

[Shanahan7B]

Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures of a rookie snow bike rider. If you dont know how it works or have never seen it how can you say it is unproven? This is a totally new design and system that other think they know how it works but really dont. The Frozen MOTO isn't a snowmobile tunnel put up under a dirt bike it is designed specifically around the bike not a retrofit. As far as unproven, I am racing the the track system and have no problem with it being in public on a regular basis. Do you think Fox Racing Shox, Scott USA, Curve Industies, Moto Concepts, & Rekluse would support and sponsor the Frozen MOTO if it wasnt adequate? I also have no problem discussing changes or hiding anything from the public that is how the industry will grow responsible dialouge. Thanks for the questions if you have others please feel free to message me.
Thanks again
Dan

 

[funjunkie]

I think if you want to show us what this thing is really made of you should go ridding with a bunch of us on mountian hoarses tomorrow. Then we will see How the ski and the kit does. So far it has been alot of talk. Give me a call 1(208)597-0700. I can let you now when we are going.

 

[Shanahan7B]

just went riding yesterday and building three more bikes tomorrow but definately interested are you here in Sandpoint? Who is this?

 

[tomk]

sick pics, I love the one on the track!

 

[Shanahan7B]

thanks TomK it shows you just how reliable the ski is you can see that I am drifting while maintaining complete control of the ski!

 

[funjunkie]

This is Dale Mangum. I have been very excited and waiting along time to see how your kit does. We need to go ridding soon. We are all in this sport together.

 

[teal_210]

just went riding yesterday and building three more bikes tomorrow but definately interested are you here in Sandpoint? Who is this?

I have a group of Mtn House riders headed to Sanpoint on Sunday if you want to join us. I'm very excited to see what thus kit can do. If it lives up to the hype, and replacement parts are resonably priced I will be ordering one.

 

[Shanahan7B]

Thanks for the offer! But building this weekend. Maybe we can get together next time for a ride where are you from maybe we can come demo with you? I am sure you won't be disappointed.

 

[Ausm7499]

Darren when you get this ride setup let me know I will make another trip north to see what these kits are capable of.

Dan is Randy doing much riding out of Weippe? That would be a lot closer for me if he is.

 

[Shanahan7B]

Darren no Randy is not riding out of Weippe. I have several bikes set up and riding/racing already. We will be in McCall this coming weekend and then will free up for a bit. We also race the Mountain West Racing series this winter, if there isn't a race going on then we will be out riding. We do a lot of riding during the week as well.

 

[more snow]

Any specific information about where you are going to be and what time this weekend in McCall. Possible demo rides? Would like to take a closer look at your new system and this new ski.

Snowbikes are completely the way to go for extreme adventure riding and exploring! Thanks.

 

[Ryanexcr]

I have 5 rides about 280 miles on my Curve-XS ski and I think it is by far the best all around ski for a snow bike. scale 1-10 ten being best. I felt in the deep powder that it did not want to submarine and never felt like it wanted to throw you over the bars ( loved that part ). Trail it feels a tiny bit flighty but overall easy to control they actually have an attachment for the tip that might help with that. Side hilling felt just fine have not tried it on icy hills but does great in soft and hard snow. It is not the perfect ski for hard groomed trails but I do like it way better than the Simmons Gen I ski. If you are looking for a no fuss bolt on ski that is a great all mountain ski this is it.

• Curve-XS​
• 8 - Powder​
• 7 - Groomed trail​
• 6 - Side hilling​
• 7 - Darting​

• Simmons Flex Gen-I​
• 4 - Powder​
• 2 - Groomed Trail​
• 7 - Side hilling​
• 1 - Darting​

 

[tomk]

I have not tried the curve ski yet, but i do want to say that the frozen moto guys are definitely on to something with the single keel ski.

last weekend I took the tKS snowbike (03wr450)for testing to West yellowstone. My kit has the SLP powderpro, I am not saying that this is the ski to go with or that it is better than any other, but I can say that it was very stable on the groomed trail, sunday we put on 72 MILES of ALL TRAIL RIDING. I was able to easily top the bike out at 57 mph and feel in control and even ride one handed! (I had to wave at my buddy on his 03 rmk 800 as he got towed back .) I averaged 40mph on the trail, the rougher the trail got the better the ski stuck. however the ski stock pushed reaaaallly bad, after I put a set of trackers on the sides it was much better, however not perfect. in the morning on the really hard iced trail the ski held very well with no pushing in the corners, but would dart from catching other ski ruts. in the afternoon, when the trails loosened up the ski went very straight and did not dart, but it would push/wash out, if you turned the ski too much in the corners. the most fun was hitting the rough burmed up corners, it would stick super hard and you could just pound the corners! but some of the tighter flat corners (switch backs) if I wasnt careful it would start to wash and I would have to put a foot down

in the pow I compared it to another bike with a simmons and I could not lean it as far as the bike with the simmons before it would wash.

on snow that had tracks but not groomed trail, like where you and all your 2 ski buddies turned around to go back up the hill, it would wash all most every time i tried to turn, even after I put the trackers on, but they did help.

Again I am not trying to make any waves, I am just sharing my experience with a single keel ski. I am not sure if all the handling issues were based solely on the ski, i wonder if has to do with the rubber bushing I used for the spindle. if anyone has ideas on that it would helpful.

I am sure that a center keel ski is the way to go for snowbikes, I am not sure what one it would be, it may be the curve ski, but disregard the ski because it is not the norm.


oh another thing compared to a dual keel ski road crossings are much more controlled, smoother and much safer, I have yet to feel scared when crossing a road, I could never say that for other bikes I have rode, when crossing roads on the dual keel ski I always felt like I had to be tipped slightly to one side so I was on one carbide, I dumped the bike on the tar three separate times! so far with the slp I have never.

 

[Ryanexcr]

Tomk thanks for the input very informative I was also looking at the SLP Powder Pro and thought it would work well, I am glad to see a report on that ski. I also feel that a single keel ski is the way to go for these snow bike kits. I would like to point out also that I am not claiming that the Curve ski is the best ski but over the stock ski that comes on the Timbersled Mountain Horse kit it is by far a better all around ski.

 

[Shanahan7B]

Ryan,
Thanks for the independent review of the Curve XS ski sounds like you are having a blast on it! Also thanks for the quantitative number scale you gave to the review as this will give individuals the ability to correlate the numbers to percentages and get a great idea of the percentage of improved handling and reliability of the Curve XS ski.
I was curious about your thoughts on the shape of the ski and the responsiveness created by the shape?

Tom,
I think what you are running into with the add on mods and the wash is the fact that the bottoms of most if not all single keel skis is flat. The mod will still create a wide flat bottom that then creates basically the Simmons with a center keel that steps down.
This is where the Curve XS will seperate itself from the rest of the center keel pack. What comes into play is the shaped nature that allows the ski to create purchase and create a leading edge on a continual plane that comes back into bike geometry and pressure along the contact patch. This is accomplished with the patented shape and Venturi that actually actively creates a rail of snow in between the center keep and outter shaped rails that are molded and engeinerred into to ski itself through the X Beam constructio and not an add on mod that is not in the equation from the producer of the ski, like it is in the Curve XS. So the lean ability of the ski actively changes the pressure point on the ski and the snow. The actively change is due to the geometry of the location and fork triangulation. I am adding a picture from a recent race and you can zoom in on the ski and see the carbide and rails working in unison which eliminates the wash from our experience both racing and free riding which creates reliability.
Hopefully this will help with the understanding of the Curve XS ski and it's workings with the bike geometry of the forks. Bikes are made to contact very little of the ground on a dirt application a very small contact patch which gives the ability to lean and steer not actively force the ski in a direction due to the surface area of the ski. This is what Curve Indistries has created which you can see in the picture. The trailing edges and even on the outside edges due to the shape gives you the extended stability and predictability in the corner again due to the venturi and the rail of snow being created removing unpredictability from the equation.
Another thing to think about is rigidity which gives you reliability not unreliability received from a flexing ski.

Hopfully this helps

Thanks for the great discussion going on here in this post!
Dan

Looks like have to add the picture in the next post from my computer not mobilely.

 

[Shanahan7B]

picture of the ski in action